Rain-curtailed second ODI between India A and New Zealand A ends in thrilling tie

When the rains finally relented in Vizag, India A and New Zealand A played out a thrilling tie in the second match of their five-match ODI series. After the first match was abandoned and the second postponed to October 10, the series eventually got underway by virtue of a 42-over contest but it was a cracker for those who stayed to watch stars from both countries play.

Due to a wet outfield, the game was curtailed to 42-overs per side and New Zealand elected to bat first. They put on 269/6 on the back of an unbeaten century by Glenn Phillips. In response, fifties from Shreyas Iyer and Ankit Bawne kept India in the hunt but they just couldn't cross the finish line as they ended their 42 overs on 269/9 and the game ended in a thrilling tie.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, New Zealand A captain Henry Nicholls wouldn't have liked what he saw as openers George Worker and Colin Munro were both dismissed early by Siddarth Kaul. No.3 batsman Glenn Phillips took it upon himself to resurrect the innings and put on crucial partnerships with captain Nicholls and Tom Bruce.

Although neither managed to stick around to get to their fifties, Phillips made sure that they had a strong total on the board courtesy of his unbeaten 140. His splendid knock included 15 fours and four sixes and although the visitors lost a few wickets towards the end, he made sure that they set India A a stiff target of 270 to win in 42 overs.

Siddarth Kaul was the pick of the bowlers, with three wickets and leg-spinner Karn Sharma also picked up two wickets to ensure that New Zealand didn't get away.

In response, Scott Kuggeleijn and Todd Astle ran through the India A top-order and left the hosts reeling at 84/5. With the likes of Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Mayank Agarwal and in-form Prithvi Shaw back in the pavilion, the game seemed beyond the reach of the hosts.

However, Shreyas Iyer and Ankit Bawne got to the middle and put on 126 runs for the sixth wicket to put India back in the game. Iyer was dismissed just 10 short of a well-deserved century, by Astle, who was the star for the visitors, finishing with figures of 4/22. Although Bawne was still at the crease, he was quickly running out of partners.

Going into the final over, the hosts needed 11 runs to win and just had one wicket in hand. Although Bawne did his best, he could only score 10 runs, leaving the game tied with him being unbeaten on 83.